Marching On To Victory And Glory

Our words of exhortation this month are based on the appearance of several references in the Bible that cite the fifth month as one that brings about the manifestation of God’s army to victory. Consequently, while we also know that May is the month of grace, we are keying into the attendant message that we shall be marching to glory all through these unfolding 31 days.

The declaration for you and I this month is that God will send his army to fight every battle for us and show forth His Glory as Jehovah Nissi, the mighty one in victory. That is the assurance we get from 1 Chronicles 27:8, which states: “The fifth captain for the fifth month was Shamhuth the Izrahite: and in his course were twenty and four thousand.:

This is the introduction we get to God’s divine arrangement of armies to fight battles on out behalf, but we must understand that we also have a key role to play. The basic roles we have to play to ensure God’s warfare on our behalf materialises into manifestations of His glory is to stay on the same track with Him; we must not look to the right or left, in order not to be carried away by vagaries of life.

This we do by being righteous, living a life of brokenness, following his dictates and ensuring we carry other people along the narrow path. An attestation of this we see is Ezra 7 v 810, which reveal: “And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

“For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”

We are further encouraged about the Presence of God moving in mighty dimensions in the fifth month through other Bible verses. Among them is Ezekiel 20:1 – And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me.

Related to this is Jeremiah 28:1- Now in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people.

There is also a rhetoric question about what we expect to achieve once we sanctify ourselves before God. Since we are directed to be upright and follow his dictates, what gains are there for us? That we see in Zechariah 7:3 -speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”

Consequently, we must view May as the month when we receive a manifestation of all the pain we have endure for God’s sake and due reward coming our way for our abstinence from impure ways of life. That is why we must not forget other symbolic messages of the fifth month, among which are the evil day (Amos 6:3), while the evil days come not (Ecclesiastes 12:1), and the charge for us to redeem the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16).

In reference to the duty we all play to obey God’s tenets, we should note that The Ten Commandments contains two sets of 5 commandments. The first five commandments are related to our treatment and relationship with God, and the last five concern our relationship with others humans. Furthermore, there are five books of God’s Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) commonly referred to as the Pentateuch (‘Penta’ means five).

Nonetheless, because of the victory and glory God has prepared for us even in this same month, Ezekiel prophesied of the coming judgment of God on Israel and the mercy to follow on the tenth day of the fifth month (Ezekiel 20:1). We are also encouraged to know that in judgment there is restraint (Ezekiel 20:33-44) and mercy (Psalm 130:7), in sorrow there is promise (Zechariah 8:1-5, 11-15, 18-19); joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5); and in time of fear and disaster there is providence (Ezra 7:6, 10); things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28).

Finally, number 5 symbolizes God’s grace, goodness and favor toward us. It is the number of grace, and multiplied by itself, which is 25, is ‘grace upon grace’ (John 1:16). I declare that May 2018 will yield multiple manifestations of God’s Grace in your life. You will be victorious and manifest His Glory all through this month and beyond. IJN.